In certain industrialized and automated countries, mail processing is performed primarily by a federal or public mail processing entity, the entity often having a monopoly to collect, sort, transport, distribute, and deliver mail. This process is usually funded via collection of postage. In some countries, notably the United States, this process is augmented by work-sharing, wherein major mailers and/or service bureaus preprocess mail via computers or computer-based automation in order to facilitate efficient processing of mail. Work-sharing performed by major mailers, service bureaus, or other third parties, is known in the United States as presorting for discount. A postage discount is earned via preprocessing mail by performing a certain level of barcoding and sorting of the mail before entry into the public postal authority or postal service.
The requirements for worksharing can be met by data processing using mailing lists and/or databases at or prior to the point of mail creation, or by a combination of software driven systems and automation after mail creation. Both methods achieve the objective of applying a barcode which is standard within at least a national framework, and presorting at the point of origin or creation of the mail. In private, mail-like systems, such as private express carriers and courier services, an equivalent relationship exists between customers or mailers and service providers through contracts or rule-based processes in which savings are achieved in “mailing” or shipping costs when the customer (1) uses standard labels/manifests and organizes the shipment according to weight, volume and type; (2) meets certain volume requirements; and/or (3) uses certain pickup or deposit points to facilitate the physical entry of the items into the service system at the point of origin. As will be seen, such practices are relevant since the present invention can be applied to postal systems, whether public or private, and to competing private networks to good effect.
Presorting operations are typically located in major metropolitan areas where mail is created and entry into the postal service is done locally. Where a company owns more than one service bureau in separate geographical locations, the current operating process is substantially the same as if the bureaus were independently owned. Presorting cooperatively with the federal post is relatively efficient as a result of post-driven standardization of addressing, machine readable codes, and rules for sorting to levels compatible with the delivery system used by the federal post, particularly in the United States and Europe.
Efficiency includes at least the ability to (1) sort and code mail with a high piece rate/man-hour by automation and (2) achieve predictability of arrival at the destination address as measured from the time of entry into presort bureaus or into federal post processing centers. Predictable arrival time is important for mail with a time dependent marketing message, allowing businesses to coordinate fulfillment and product distribution processes in order to maximize sales, service, and customer satisfaction, or for financial transactions, such as billing or payment events.
Available data demonstrate that preprocessing of mail is cost-effective for all involved since cost avoidance by the federal post is greater than discounts available and/or permitted by regulation or postal rates approved by rate making authorities. At the same time, the discounted cost of postage represents a savings to mailers and is sufficient to compensate for value-added processes contributed by presort functions.
Greater efficiency can be obtained, however, by 1) further improving productivity of the overall presort function on a network basis, 2) information exchange between presorters or cooperative major mailers, and 3) improving predictability of delivery by process changes that permit entry of presorted mail into the federal post at destination points closest to the destination address. The present invention describes the physical processes, information processes, and financial arrangements which make possible improvements in both productivity and predictability. The new processes described should be of interest to mailers whose communications are time dependent and for whom the separation of such mail from general collection mail, which may not be so time dependent, inherently provides for expedited and efficient processing and delivery of mail, whether or not processing is done within or external to the federal post. Similarly, productivity and service enhancements will be attractive to bureau operators in view of competitive advantages of network members over non-networked operations. In some cases, economic gain from efficiencies inherent in the new network process will be enhanced through changes in rates designed as incentives to reward the new value created by the process.
Current public and private network process methods employ exception item processing for reading addresses and obtaining appropriate bar codes in cases where automation-based optical reading technology is used to accomplish address reading in real-time machine processing. Semiautomatic methods include on-premises and remote encoding methods, both of which use image-lift data captured during automated processing. Image data is identified via an identification (ID) number, which is printed on the individual mail piece and is later used to match exception item coding results with the physical mail piece/item. In remote encoding cases, images are transferred from a particular process node to a remote site(s) where computer databases and keyboard CRT stations enable operators to enter otherwise unreadable information to obtain desired bar code information. This information is then relayed back to the original presort center (process node) where, in a subsequent process, bar code information is printed on the appropriate mail piece/item using an ID number as a matching device. This process will change under information based network processing systems as a result of the changes inherent in the new physical process method.